Pages

BLOG TOUR: How To Make A Wish by Ashley Herring Blake - Review + Giveaway

Title: How To Make A WishAuthor: Ashley Herring BlakePublisher: HMH Books for Young ReadersPublication Date: May 2nd 2017Part of a Series?: No, A StandaloneI Got A Copy Through: ARC from HMH Teen (THANK YOU!)

Synopsis: All seventeen year-old Grace Glasser wants isher own life. A normal life in which she sleeps inthe same bed for longer than three months and doesn't have to scrounge for spare change tomake sure the electric bill is paid. Emotionally trapped by her unreliable mother, Maggie, and the tiny cape on which she lives, she focuses on her best friend, her upcoming audition for a top music school in New York, and surviving Maggie’s latest boyfriend—who happens tobe Grace’s own ex-boyfriend’s father.Her attempts to lay low until she graduates are disrupted when she meets Eva, a girl with herown share of ghosts she’s trying to outrun. Grief-stricken and lonely, Eva pulls Grace into mid-night adventures and feelings Grace never planned on. When Eva tells Grace she likes girls, both of their worlds open up. But, united by loss, Eva also shares a connection with Maggie. AsGrace's mother spirals downward, both girls must figure out howto love and howto move on.

I read Ashley
Herring Blake’s debut novel,Suffer Love, last year and I
REALLY loved it. It was quick paced, just the right amount of twisted and
complicated and, well, a really enjoyable read.

As soon as her new book was announced, I knew it was
something I SIMPLY had to get my hands on.Biracial AND Bisexual
characters? GIVE IT TO ME NOW.

I’ll be honest, it took me a while to get used to the
characters in this book.

For starters, I kept comparingHow To Make A Wish toSuffer Love and I kept comparing Eva and Grace together to
Sam and Hadley. A well done romance is a well done romance, and for some
reason, Eva and Grace felt sort of chemistry-less. I thought that they madeAMAZING CHARACTERS, filled with pain and
insecurities individually, and EVEN AS FRIENDS,but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that that
Chemistry was missing.

MORE
THAN ANYTHING, the reason it took me so long to actually enjoy the book was
Maggie, Grace’s mom.

Usually, I wouldn’t even BELIEVE that a mother could be the
way she did, but over these past few months, I’ve seen a friend go through
something SO SIMILAR, that this sort of hit a raw nerve for me and all I was
seeing was red.

About twenty percent into the book, I got over my anger
towards Grace’s mom and enjoyed the book.

Ashley Herring Blake managed to capture grief with such
clarity, it was heart-breaking. I love that Grace tapped out her pieces out any
surface ever, because that is EXACTLY what I do when I’m learning a new piano
piece. I love that there was SO MUCH HOPE, LOVE, FAMILY AND DESPAIR IN THIS
BOOK. I love the peanut butter jokes, I loved the gnomes in compromising
positions and I LOVED LUCA and Emmy.

I
was SO SO HAPPY that there was finally a boy-girl friendship that didn’t
revolve around romance and was ACTUALLY FUN and filled with teasing and slight
bodily harm.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have been comparing both
of Ashley Blake’s books, because they were both beautiful in their own way.

A wonderful book on what it means to love after you lose the
person you loved the most, and how to let go of someone you love. 4 stars.

Ashley Herring Blake is a reader, writer, and mom to two boisterous boys. She holds a Master’s degree in teaching and loves coffee, arranging her books by color, and watching Buffy over and over again on Netflix with her friends. She's the author of the young adult novels SUFFER LOVE and HOW TO MAKE A WISH.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About The Blogger

Aditi is nineteen (Is that Adult or Teenager?) and is (Still) slaving away at university. If you ever need to find her, just knock on the door to her Bookshelf (Narnia Closet, really, so HUSH) but she may or may not answer. Consider yourself warned. She's still a book hoarder, has sort of learnt how to drive a car and can't wait to travel the world outside of a book.